Microsoft To Open Source Xamarin SDKs

Microsoft announced at #Build2016 that it is looking forward to open sourcing the Xamarin software development kit, runtime, libraries, and command line tools. The SDK is expected to be open source in the coming months. Microsoft acquired Xamarin in February, 2016 and now Xamarin is free for all Visual Studio users including Visual Studio Community Edition, Visual Studio Professional, and Visual Studio Enterprise.

Microsoft is also making Xamarin Studio for OSX available for Visual Studio Enterprise users at no extra cost. Xamarin's cross-platform development software eases mobile application developments and allows C# developers to build apps for iOS, Android, and Windows.

"We are announcing today our commitment to open source the Xamarin SDKs for Android, iOS, and Mac under the MIT license in the coming months. This includes native API bindings and the basic command-line tools necessary to develop mobile apps. It also includes our popular cross-platform native UI toolkit, Xamarin.Forms."

"With these changes, .NET is now open source and native on every single device, from mobile to desktop to cloud. This is a proud moment for all of us who have invested years into making .NET the best platform, and we know that this change will make it even easier for developers to invest their own time into building great software in C#."

"We look forward to building a true open source community around Xamarin, and eagerly await the first pull requests."

The blog also stated that the Xamarin team have contributed the Mono Project to the .NET Foundation. This also includes previously-proprietary mobile-specific enhancements to the Mono runtime. Mono will also be re-released under the MIT License for enabling a broader set of uses for everyone.

Scott Guthrie showed the way Slack and Pinterest are using Xamarin Test Cloud and the 2,300 device test lab to ensure that the apps are working everywhere. The company informs us that they will continue to provide Xamarin Test Cloud as a standalone product.